Ray, when I was a kid growing up in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, I remember going to see a traveling circus that came through town.

Sure. I remember stuff like that coming through my town.

Sure. So the circus was so small that it was held in the parking lot of the Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire Department.

That does sound like a small circus, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, there was a big top, a petting zoo area, some clowns, things like that. But I remember the animal show under the tent. At one point, they had a tiger that was going to jump through a hoop. And the ringmaster announced that Connecticut state law forbids the circus from having any

open flames under the tent.

So he asked us to imagine the hoop was on fire as the tiger jumps through.

Yeah, I can imagine that's not as exciting.

No, no, it wasn't.

But it turns out the ringmaster wasn't kidding about that Connecticut state law.

A law that was put in place after a horrible circus tragedy

left 167 people dead, including a young girl who would go on to start a mystery that lasted half

a century. Today we're heading to Hartford, Connecticut to explore the Great Circus Fire mystery.

Hello, I'm Jeff Belanger.

And I'm Ray Ozier.

Welcome to episode 296 of the New England Legends podcast.

And thanks for joining us on our mission of Chronicle, Every Legend in New England,

one story at a time.

Most of our story leads come from you.

So please reach out to us anytime through our website.

Also, if you subscribe to our podcast, and you should, because it's free, wherever you get your podcast, we're now twice per week. On Mondays, we have a new episode called From the Vault, where we replay a classic episode from our archives and add some new commentary. We may add interviews or other little nuggets as well. If you've never gone back hundreds of episodes, then these stories will be new to you. And if you've been with us a long time, you can enjoy the classic episode again. Also, this week's episode deals with some tragic themes involving the death of children. If you're sensitive to that, you may want to skip this one. Now, before we get to the Hartford Circus Fire Mystery, we want to take just a minute to tell you about our sponsor, New Audio Herbles. Ray, I'm busier than ever with work, our podcast, and of course, family and home and all the details that go with that. I get it. Life moves pretty fast. We can't afford to get sick, and dealing with spring allergies can't slow us down either. Now, we've talked before about the healer tea from New Water Iribles. We have. It's their bestseller for a good reason. It works. The healer tea has all natural ingredients like elderberries, echinacea, juniper berries, slippery elm, marshmallow root, white willow bark, and cayenne pepper. I know that sounds a little odd when you first hear it.

It does. But then you learn there's two steps to heal her tea from new water urbles. After you shake the jar, you open it up and give it a sniff. Now, I promise you won't forget that.

No, you won't.

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